The U.S. Tried to Choke Russia’s Energy Market. Then It Made a Diesel Deal.

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Want to hear a scary number? Comcast Business detected 79.3 billion cyber events over a year across their security customers. And with AI-powered threats on the rise, it's getting more and more difficult to feel certain about your business. But thanks to Comcast Business' intelligence, solutions and 24-7 partnership, cyber confidence is possible. Learn more about Comcast Business' advanced cybersecurity solutions at comcastbusiness.com/cybersecurity.

Cyber confidence starts with Comcast Business.

Natalie Kitroeff (0:35)

From The New York Times, I'm Natalie Kitroeff. This is The Daily.

After years of American sanctions on Russian oil and gas, President Trump has just announced a deal in which the United States would buy billions of dollars in diesel from Russia. Trump claimed the move would lower fuel prices, but it stunned US allies and lawmakers in Washington, who warned that the American government was handing Putin a lifeline. Today, my colleague Anton Troianovski explains what the deal reveals about Trump's changing strategy with Russia and how much it could actually help American consumers. It's Wednesday, October 14th. Anton, welcome back to The Daily. We love having you here.

Anton Troianovski (1:33)

Good to be here. Thank you, Natalie.

Natalie Kitroeff (1:34)

So on Friday, we learned that the American government is now reversing years of US policy and is going to be buying Russian diesel, which is something that the US had not been doing because we were told that money could fund Russia's war machine. And we learned that all this is in service of lowering gas prices at home.

This news was received, I think, as a total shock around the world. Can you just start by saying how big of a deal this actually is?

Anton Troianovski (2:06)

Yeah, absolutely. So Friday's news was a really stunning reversal because it was the president saying, we have agreed with Russia that the Russians will immediately supply 300,000 tons of diesel to US and world markets and even more after that, without even saying that this was part of some kind of broader deal to de-escalate this war in Ukraine that's now gone on for four and a half years and killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Natalie Kitroeff (2:40)

Okay, so how did this happen, Anton? Lay out for me how exactly we got here.

Anton Troianovski (2:46)

Well, let's go all the way back to the 2024 election campaign. You remember one of Trump's main campaign promises was to end the war in Ukraine. He said he was going to do it in 24 hours.

Natalie Kitroeff (2:58)

That did not happen.

Anton Troianovski (2:59)

That did not happen. But Trump's friend and now peace envoy, Steve Witkoff, started early on in February of 2025 regularly going to Russia, meeting with Putin, speaking to other Russian officials about trying to end the war.

One primary prong of the US approach has been talking about business deals with Russia. Basically making the argument that, look, if only this war was over, we could do all these great things together and our countries could make lots of money.

Natalie Kitroeff (3:34)

Essentially, let's end this war and we can all profit off of that.

Anton Troianovski (3:39)

Exactly, but the problem was that didn't work. For Putin, economics matter, but he clearly didn't start this war in Ukraine to make more money.

SPEAKER_4 (3:48)

Right.

Anton Troianovski (3:50)

What Putin cares about is territory. He wants more of the Eastern Ukrainian region called the Donbas. What Putin cares about is the kind of control he'll be able to exercise over the rest of Ukraine after the war ends. What he cares about are these big geopolitical issues of what does the future relationship between Russia and NATO look like? Where are Western troops located in different parts of Europe? It's this big kaleidoscope of issues for Putin, of which economics are really just a part.

As a result, this effort of dangling deals in front of Putin with the hope that this will get him to compromise has not borne fruit.

Then, layer on top of that, the fact that the Iran War starts in February of this year. And that makes things even more complicated. In part by raising energy prices around the world. Russia of course is one of the world's biggest exporters of both oil and gas. And that gives Putin new cards to play, which puts these negotiations about potential energy deals with the Russians into a different light. Because suddenly, it's now the US that's looking for ways to lower energy prices.

Natalie Kitroeff (5:09)

And especially right now, as we have these midterm elections coming up, you might start to see that pain that American consumers are feeling translate into votes.

Anton Troianovski (5:18)

Exactly.

So you see the administration thinking about all kinds of ways to try to reverse this spike in fuel prices. And then at the same time, you have the Ukraine war escalating.